Valley House Flats developers want angled parking on Progress Street, and BTC President Curtis Ward closed part of Ninth Street

By John Estridge

Progress Street Hill is not slipping as fast as it once was.

Because of that, developers of Valley House Flats want to allow parking on the west side of Progress Street between Fourth and Fifth streets to serve the Valley House Flats residents.

Two developers, Bruce Rippe and George Gillman, attended the Brookville Town Council meeting Tuesday night, April 13, to make that request.

Progress Street Hill is man-made. It is composed of fill. It is believed there are vehicle bodies, large rocks, concrete, fill dirt and other debris underneath the hill’s topsoil. Engineers studying it when it was slipping at a faster rate, called the fill non-engineered. During construction of Valley House Flats, fill from the 1800s was found outside the Valley House backdoor, meaning most of the hill west from that backdoor is believed to be also fill.

Pilings had to be put down deep in the earth for the new part of Valley House Flats to keep the building stable due to the fill.

Currently, the town is awaiting a contractor to begin working on moving and stabilizing a major sewage pipe along the hill due to the slippage. Also, the plan is to make drainage in the area better. Part of the work is being paid through an Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) grant. It was feared part of the sewage pipe would break due to the slippage, necessitating the project.

At the April 13 BTC meeting, Brookville Police Chief Terry Mitchum mentioned the denuding of the hill’s western slope going down to the river.

Then State Representative Jud McMillin was instrumental in the town receiving a grant to spruce up the view of the Whitewater River’s west fork from the town in the hopes of creating better commercial development in the area. A fountain was pictured where Valley House Flats is now. It was hoped restaurants and drinking establishments would flourish in the area.

Part of the process was the denuding of trees on the slope to allow for a better view from the street. An overlook was put in place to help beautify the area and take advantage of the new view.

However, as Mitchum said during the meeting, most everyone in town knew denuding the hillside was going to destabilize an already destabilized situation. And it did.

The hill began moving by inches, causing damage to the pavement. It left the sidewalk unattached from the ground in places – to the point men could crawl within the void — and caused the town to put up police tape on that side of the street, not allowing parking, use of the sidewalk as well as not allowing anyone on the overlook. Eventually the town took up part of the sidewalk in that area. Slippage was worse on the south side of the overlook to its intersection with Fourth Street and tapered off the farther north one went toward Fifth Street.

At some point after the slippage accelerated, an engineering firm hired by the town put sensors in place along the hillside to monitor the slippage rate. At the April 13 meeting, Rippe said that slippage has slowed.

He said over the past year the hill as slipped a quarter of an inch by one sensor’s measurement and not at all as recorded by several sensors.

To enhance parking for Valley House Flats, the previous town council decided to make Progress Street a one-way street from north to south between Fourth and Fifth streets and put angled parking on both sides of the street. Businesses in the area agreed with the change, Rippe said. Rippe gave that part of the history at the beginning of his talk Tuesday night. However, plans for this change had to be sent to the Indiana Department of Transportation for approval because the one-way will be from the intersection of Fifth Street and U.S. 52 to Fourth Street and U.S. 52. Since that involves a highway maintained by the state, the town needs state approval to continue the project.

It has never been said if the new parking spaces will be metered.

Brookville Town Manager Tim Ripperger said he tried to contact the traffic engineering office at INDOT, which is considering the plans, but no one from that office has returned his phone calls or emails up to the time of Tuesday’s meeting.

Rippe said there are now 45 residents in Valley House Flats, making parking at a premium for the residents. He said FCN Bank’s patience is now gone due to residents taking its parking places in FCN’s parking lot between Valley House Flats and FCN Bank’s drive thru.

Also, Rippe plans to open a restaurant within Valley House Flats within the next year, which will further complicate the parking problem.

According to Rippe, in the interim, he would like to see parking allowed again on the west side of Progress. He would like to see angled parking to allow more vehicles – 20-25 — to be parked in that area. Once the street becomes one-way, then permanent lining for the parking will be put in place, according to Rippe’s plan.

Brookville Attorney Tammy Davis pointed out the pavement in that area is still very rough, and with two-way traffic still allowed on that street, she was concerned there would be enough room for both traffic and the angled parking.

BTC President Curtis Ward also was concerned about the amount of room available for angled parking while the street is two-way. He suggested just allowing parking north of the overlook where it is more stable.

BTC member Chuck Campbell asked who would be liable if something would happen to parked vehicles along the west side of the street at this time.

Davis said everyone who parks is doing so at their own risks. However, Davis said the area is very uneven in the paving in that area.

Mitchum said the town created the unevenness when it took up the sidewalk south of the overlook. Also, Mitchum offered to go to the site and determine if there is enough room for angled parking and vehicles backing up while there is two-way traffic. Mitchum is to report back to Street Department Superintendent Brent Riehle and Ripperger concerning the results of his study.

In an unrelated matter concerning the town’s streets, later in the meeting, Ripperger was talking about the different things Riehle wants to do prior to paving. Rohe Paving is in town now and is going to pave certain streets, including Ninth Street and the streets around the pool. Riehle wanted to do preparation work along Ninth Street and create a parking lot with five spaces for people using the fairly new playground across Ninth Street from the Aquatic Center. Rohe would also pave the parking lot.

Ward said he did not want that. According to Ward, he wants Ninth Street closed from the Aquatic Center the alley between INDOT’s garage to the end of the street. He said he wanted that for the safety of the families using the playground.

BTC member Eric Johnson agreed with Ward and said there is plenty of parking for people using the playground across Ninth Street in the Aquatic Center’s parking lot.

Ripperger was taken aback by Ward’s comments, saying time was of the essence as Rohe is ready to pave all around the pool and no one had talked to Ripperger or Riehle about closing the street. Mitchum also warned that closing the street would make the Homecoming Parade much more difficult as the floats and parade entries come there after the parade. That area is very congested after the parade as the street system is now. He is afraid closing that part of the street will only exacerbate the problem.

Ward said he would meet with Riehle and tell him what Ward wants done to the street. Council unanimously approved the closing of Ninth Street in that area even after Mitchum’s comments.

After the vote, Ripperger had a text come to him from a person monitoring the meeting via the Facebook video. That person suggested just closing that part of Ninth Street during the summer months only so Homecoming will not be negatively affected.

However, council members said they would stand by their vote.